Spring ’17 10×10: Wrap Up and Insights

What an amazing time I had doing the Spring 10×10 capsule challenge! First of thank you to Lee of Style Bee and Caroline of Unfancy for hosting this awesome challenge! It was so fun to see all of great photos on Instagram and read about everyone else’s experiences!

Just a quick recap, the basics of the challenge are this: Pick 10 items in your wardrobe and wear only those items for 10 days.

My 10×10 capsule contained:

2 blouses

2 sweaters

2 cardigans

2 pairs of pants

1 skirt

1 pair of shoes

So how did it go? Below I’ll share 3 challenges, 3 wins, and a couple of other insights.

3 Challenges

1 | Weather
There’s a saying here in SOKY, that if you don’t like the weather, just wait 15 minutes, and it’ll change. While I was doing the challenge, we had a wide range of weather, from brilliant sunshine to intense power-outage-inducing thunderstorms, and I definitely struggled with accommodating roller coaster temperatures. The highs ranged from 56-83 while the lows ranged from 35-61.

For most days, having a thin nylon trouser sock was enough to combat chilled toes, but on one particularly wet and cold day I did end up reaching for my ankle booties, and I have no regrets. The weather also forced me to get more creative with my layering, and the result was one of my favorite outfits of the challenge!

2| Aesthetics
For most of my life, I have treated shoes as a utilitarian item. After all, they are one of the most purposeful items of clothing; having the proper footwear can enhance our ability to walk, run, dance, climb, balance, etc. I have also been fairly adamantly against wearing heels as an everyday shoe (with the exception of maybe a short kitten heel), so I was surprised when I had a negative reaction to the combination of my navy circle skirt and ballet moccasins. Even though I was exceptionally comfortable, something about the proportions of the outfit was thrown off by the flat shoes, and I found myself feeling a little out of place because of it.

The other aesthetic issue I ran into was the monochromatic color palette of combining my taupe chinos with my seafoam sweater. The color hues were just too close, making the outfit feel undefined and boring. I could have added a colorful accessory, but since this was one day that the temps were warmer than expected, adding a cardigan or scarf wasn’t practical.

3| Self-Photography
I learned A LOT about taking full-body selfies with this challenge. As I’ve mentioned, I am not a photographer, nor do I live with a photographer, so all my photos are shot by me with my cell phone, a tripod, and a shutter remote. I had a goal of not spending more than 15 minutes in front of the camera per day, and let me tell you, I got really good at quickly setting up my weird little system.

But the real challenge was seeing, evaluating, and editing photos of myself every single day. In the past several years, I’ve worked a lot on self-care and also loving myself the way I am, but knowing that I was going to post and share these photos to a whole community of fashion bloggers really took things to a whole new level. Add to that the fact that I had a horrible spot of acne flare up halfway through the challenge. There were definitely photos that brought up some of those old self-conscious hang-ups. In the end, though, I honored my commitment to the challenge and I’m really pleased with my results. I still love my clothes and the way they make me look. 🙂

3 Wins

1| Color Scheme
Overall, I loved this color scheme! I kept coming back to the blue, taupe, cream combination, but having the seafoam and blush colors to refresh that tried-and-true palette made the whole selection of clothes feel springy after a long winter of blues and grays.

2| Outfits
While there were a couple of moments where it seemed as though inspiration was going to dry up, by the end of the challenge, I was still coming up with new outfits that I was disappointed that I didn’t get to wear or showcase during this challenge! Seriously, my small closet truly is so much more versatile than I realize.

3| Silhouettes
Several of the items in this challenge were go-to items that I reach for all the time, but both the striped linen top and the floral tank were tunic tops – a silhouette that I generally feel swallows up my figure and changes me into a shapeless blob. Two things I learned and loved during this challenge were a) the drape and structure of the fabric can make all the difference, and b) why not try tucking it in?

Despite its tendency to wrinkle (this is becoming less of a problem the more I wear and wash it), I loved the effortless, casual elegance of my striped linen tunic. I was less of a fan of the look of the floral tunic over my jeans, and I was pleasantly surprised that I actually liked the look of tucking it in, creating a loose-but-not-too-loose top for the skinny jeans. It was definitely the riskiest outfit of the 10, but it was also an incredibly eye-opening outfit experiment.

Other Insights

1| Accessories
I knew this going into the challenge, but accessories are just not my thing. I think I wore my imitation pearl studs almost every day, and only wore a necklace once or twice. Even then it didn’t really draw attention. I did have a couple of scarves that proved to be exceptionally helpful on cooler days; plus I love the look and feel of a scarf. But when it comes to jewelry, I’m much more interested in how the fabric colors, textures, and shapes create an interesting outfit, and I love that!

2| Hairstyles
I have a system for hairstyles that I’ll share in a future post, but I just wanted to add to this post that I never intentionally chose a hairstyle to compliment each of these outfits. However, upon reflection, I do think that having my hair down or up does tend to compliment certain styles or necklines. For practical reasons, I don’t really see myself purposefully coordinating my hairstyle to my outfit, but I’m interested to explore these aesthetics further.

Well, that’s it! Did you participate in the Spring 10×10? What did you love about it? What did you learn? I’d love to hear how it went for you!

The spring challenge may be over, but I’ll be back with more Everyday Joys next Tuesday. See you then!

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5 thoughts on “Spring ’17 10×10: Wrap Up and Insights”

You really don’t need to worry! You look amazing, young and happy and so beautiful! If there was anyone as pretty as you casually ordering a sandwich at the local deli, I’m sure I would be taken back and stare just a little too long! I don’t think anyone likes people looking perfect, actually, because how someone represents their self is a reflection of their heart, and if it looks too perfect it just comes off as fake. You know?

I am so interested to hear about your hairstyle system! I assume it has something to do with washing cycle? I myself wear hats a lot but I love to experiment with the many variations of pulling back hair with a hat and even putting it up. It can definitely add to the overall look, but like you I don’t usually think about that I just do something last minute, whatever seems to work. I suppose I have my own system but it’s not very well defined.

Taking photos is SOOOO hard. I’m not detail oriented so I just snap 3 photos and choose the one I can deal with. Your photos always look really good and have a way of telling the viewer what to focus on.

It really is so hard! I like the idea of having a set limit…for me, no more than 15 minutes; for you, no more than 3 photos. It really helps to keep things authentic and prevents me from spending all my time reviewing and retaking photos.